MINERS' LUCK.
The reports already received of the finds of gold seem beyond belief but
the greater part of them are actual facts, and the following came under
my personal observation:--
Alexander McDonald, on Claim No. 30, Eldorado, on the Klondyke, started
drifting on his claim with four men. The men agreed to work the claim on
shares, the agreement being that they should work on shares by each
receiving half of what they could get out. The five together took out
$95,000.00 in twenty-eight days. The ground dug up was found to measure
but 40 square feet. This was an exceptional find. The men are of course
working the claim and had 460 square feet on the claim still to work out
when I left for the East.
People in the East or elsewhere can hardly realize what a small space a
mining claim is in this vast and comparatively unexplored territory.
William Leggatt on Claim No. 13, Eldorado, together with William Gates
and a miner named Shoots, purchased their claim from a miner named
Stewart, and his partner, for the sum of $45,000.00. They did not have
money to make the payment in cash but made a first payment of $2,000.00
with the agreement to pay the balance of the purchase price, $43,000.00,
prior to July 1st, 1897. They sunk a shaft and commenced taking out
$1,000.00 per day.
They worked the pay dirt until about May 15, 1897, when they found that
they had taken out $62,000.00, and the space of the claim worked was
only _twenty-four square feet_.
A young man who went to the Klondyke recently writes that he is taking
out $1,800.00 a day from his claim.
It is stated on good authority that one claim yielded $90,000 in 45
feet up and down the stream. Clarence Berry bought out his two partners,
paying one $35,000 and the other $60,000, and has taken up $140,000 from
the winter dump alone. Peter Wiborg has purchased more ground. He
purchased his partner's interest in a claim, paying $42,000. A man by
the name of Wall has all he thinks he wants, and is coming out. He sold
his interests for $50,000. Nearly all the gold is found in the creek bed
on the bed rock, but there are a few good bench diggings.
Perhaps the most interesting reading in the _Mining Record_ is the
letters written by men in the Klondyke to friends in Juneau. Here is one
from "Casey" Moran:
DAWSON, March 20, 1897.
"FRIEND GEORGE: Don't pay any attention to what any one says, but come
in at your earliest opportunity. My God! it is appalling to hear the
truth, but nevertheless the world has never produced its equal before.
Well, come. That's all. Your friend,
"CASEY."
Burt Shuler, writing from Klondyke under date of June 5, says:
"We have been here but a short time and we all have money. Provisions
are much higher than they were two years ago and clothing is clean out
of sight. One of the A.C. Co.'s boats was lost in the spring, and there
will be a shortage of provisions again this fall. There is nothing that
a man could eat or wear that he cannot get a good price for. First-class
rubber boots are worth from an ounce of gold to $25 a pair. The price of
flour has been raised from $4 to $6, as it was being freighted from
Forty Mile. Big money can be made by bringing a small outfit over the
trail this fall. Wages have been $15 per day all winter, though a
reduction to $10 was attempted, but the miners quit work.... Here is a
creek that is eighteen miles long, and, as far as is known, without a
miss. There are not enough men in the country to-day to work the claims.
Several other creeks show equal promise, but very little work has been
done on the latter. I have seen gold dust until it seems almost as cheap
as sawdust. If you are coming in, come prepared to stay two years at
least; bring plenty of clothing and good rubber boots."
Thus far little attempt to mine quartz has been made in the interior of
Alaska and the Northwest, although many quartz croppings have been seen.
It would cost too much to take in the machinery and to build a plant
until transportation facilities are better. In time, however, quartz
mining operations will commence, for the placer mines were washed down
from the mother veins somewhere. If the washings have made the richest
placers in the world, what must the mother veins be? One dares hardly to
imagine.
This is a brief description of the gold region in the Northwest.
For further and more detailed information on Routes and Distances,
Transportations, Mining Laws, How to Stake a Claim, Where to Register
Your Claim, Modes of Placer Mining and Quartz Mining, Return of Gold
from the Diggings, Mortality, Cost of Living, etc., I refer the reader
to my book on this subject entitled "Klondyke Facts," a work of about
224 pages. It is published in paper covers at 50 cents a copy with maps
and illustrations, and is sent postpaid by the publishers on receipt of
50 cents.
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